Headaches can range from mildly annoying to majorly debilitating, but no matter how disruptive your headache is, everyone wants to put an end to their headache as quickly as possible. Oftentimes doctors jump right to medication for headache treatment, and while medications can be an effective solution, many patients would like to find a more natural treatment if at all possible. With that in mind, we want to use today’s blog to spotlight some of the non-medication treatment options for headaches and migraines.
Natural Headache Relief
Even if you pursue medication for headache relief, there’s a very high likelihood that your doctor will recommend a few other complementary treatment techniques that can also help to keep headaches at bay. If you’d prefer to try a combination of these treatments before talking to your doctor about medication treatment, you may find that you’re experiencing enough relief that drug treatment is not necessary. Here are some common non-medication treatment options for headaches and migraines.
- Exercise – We understand that the last thing you may want to do after a headache has developed is go for a run, but exercise can help address some of the underlying causes of headaches, so you should make time to exercise when you’re not dealing with a headache. Exercise can help by boosting circulation, bringing oxygenated blood to the brain and other vital structures. Exercise can also strengthen muscle groups in the neck, back and shoulders that may contribute to tension headaches if they are overstressed.
- Staying Hydrated – Headaches also tend to be more common when you are dehydrated due to the fact that this can disrupt healthy blood flow. Drinking more water isn’t likely to completely cure your headaches, but it can cut down on one of the risk factors for headache onset.
- Stress Management – Mental and emotional stress can have physical effects on our bodies, oftentimes in the form of muscle tension. This muscle tension can lead to the development of the aptly-named tension headache. Finding healthy ways to reduce stress in your life or manage it when it develops can help keep tension headaches at bay. Exercise, deep breathing techniques or relaxation techniques like yoga or meditation can also help stress melt away.
- Improve Your Sleep Schedule – Headache frequency can oftentimes be tied to a lack of quality sleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep, or your sleep is constantly being interrupted, your body can’t take advantage of this restorative process. Toxins and other cellular waste products are more easily filtered out of our body when we achieve quality sleep, and they are more likely to remain in our system if we can’t get restful sleep. These waste particles can contribute to headache or migraine onset, so helping your body get rid of them by achieving more restful sleep can have a major effect on your headache risk.
- Rejuvenation Therapy – Headache and migraine treatment is one of our specialties at HyperCharge Clinic. We have a number of different therapy techniques that can address your issues at the cellular level. You can learn more about our migraine management program on this page, but know that we have options like whole body photobiomodulation and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy that can address cellular dysfunction and restore underlying neurological imbalances. Using concentrated light or electromagnetic waves can energize your cells and get them back to performing critical cellular functions more efficiently, which can combat contributing factors to headaches like inflammation. These techniques are designed to work alongside other techniques on this list for maximum function.
Know that you have plenty of non-medication treatment options available to you for headache relief, and if you need help developing a treatment plan suited to your specific needs, we’re here to help. For more information about some of the rejuvenation techniques we offer, or for help with a different health or wellness issue, reach out to the team at HyperCharge Clinic today at (763) 717-8745.